Help to Buy

The Government’s Help to Buy Scheme is designed to help home-owners and new buyers onto and up the property ladder with a new generation of affordable mortgages.
It’s a popular scheme from 2014 – and it’s easy to see why. With just a 5% deposit of the property’s purchase price, home buyers can now more easily stop renting – and join the ranks of happy home owners in the UK.

How does Help to Buy work?

The scheme is simple, but effective. It offers two options – one for those who want to keep their mortgage payments down, and one for those who can afford larger mortgage repayments every month.

Let’s take a look at which might suit you best:

Help to Buy option one – I want to keep my mortgage payments down

If you’re keen to keep mortgage repayments down, this option can help. All you’ll need is a minimum of 5% deposit. The government will provide a loan of 20% of the purchase price, leaving you to secure a 75% mortgage. The loan provided by the government can be paid back at any time – or on the sale of your home.

This option expands on the First Buy scheme, which was previously targeted just at first time buyers. Now – it doesn’t matter if you’ve previously owned a home!

Help to Buy Option Two – I can afford bigger repayments, but only have a small deposit

If you’ve only got access to a small deposit for your new home, but could afford to make larger repayments on your property, this could be for you!

As with the previous option, you’ll need a minimum 5% deposit to qualify. The government will then guarantee a proportion of your mortgage – encouraging mortgage providers to give you a far better deal. This is of course available to first-time buyers, as well as previous home-owners.

Help to Buy Eligibility

The scheme is designed to put property ownership within the grasp of many who would otherwise be unable, however admission to the scheme is dependent on a few factors. The property you’re hoping to purchase must be less than £600,000 in value, and you must not own any other property at the same time as purchasing your new home through the scheme. Although the above provisos are important – it’s important to note that there are more to take account of! Full lists of terms for participation in the scheme can be found at the official scheme website here:

Which banks are members of the scheme?

Many large mortgage providers have chosen to support Help to Buy – so there are plenty of banks to choose from when applying for your mortgage. These include:

Bank of Scotland

Aldermore

Barclays

Halifax

HSBC

Natwest

RBS

Santander

Virgin Money

Lloyds

Resources

A lot of excellent resources have been produced to help buyers to get to grasp with their options, and to understand what it can offer them. We’ve collected a few of the most useful resources here, so you can see whether it would be a good fit for you.

You may have noticed that we have a Help to Buy Calculator on our site! Take a quick glance at the sidebar when browsing our property listings, and you can quickly calculate what deposit you’d need to own your new house under the Help to Buy Scheme.

Images may include items of non‑standard specification. Please see our Sales Consultants for further details.

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Some images are indicative, or taken from other, similar Countryside developments. Help to Buy, the 20% Government-backed Equity Loan and 75% Mortgage are subject to status, lender's conditions and availability. Choose '& I'm included' plus one offer to get you moving. Not all offers can be taken together. Selected plots only, subject to status, availability, terms and conditions.